Basic Lookup concepts

•When you perform any lookup, the resulting list of contacts is the Current Group.

•The Current Group is always the result of a lookup.

•Lookups by nature are immediate. When a lookup is performed, it returns contacts that meet that criteria at that moment. A lookup on gifts received would be different one month than it would be the next month.

•A Successive Lookup is one where you do a lookup (such as all contacts in a city), then do a lookup within that lookup (such as only the donors in that city). See the table below on Relationship to the Current Group to see the four ways you can control the returned list of contacts.

•Default Lookup upon opening TntConnect.When the database is opened, a lookup is performed immediately. The default lookup is Lookup | Everyone, and the Current Group then is all contacts in database. (You can change your Default Lookup in Tools | Options | User Interface tab.

Everyone

All contacts in the database.

Relevant Contacts

Decision is not No. Includes anyone whose TNT Phase is anything but <Not Interested> or <Never Ask>), anyone who is a newsletter recipient, and the <Me> contact.

Newsletter List

All newsletter recipients and the <Me> contact.

Current Lookup

Whatever the Current Lookup is at the moment this menu item is chosen can be saved as the default lookup. You can create your own favorite lookup, then have TntConnect run that lookup every time you open TntConnect.

As a new staff member, your list of Who? questions would be fairly straightforward. But for senior staff, the number of possible combinations could literally be in the millions. For example:

•Who supported our ministry between 1999 and 2001 and not since and gave more than $3000 but never more than $500 in a single gift and is married?

Lookups Dialog Box

Some lookups run immediately when selected from the menu. But most lookups bring up the Lookup Contacts dialog box so that the lookup criteria can be defined.

Relationship to the Current Group

When performing a lookup, the software needs to know how the results will impact the Current Group.

Replace the current group

Queries the entire database and displays a new group.Or, "Ignore the current group, and out of all contacts in my database, only show me those who meet 'this' criteria.

Lookup within the current group

Queries the Current Group and displays only those contacts that meet the criteria from the Current Group. Or, "Using only this current group as a starting point, now show me contacts who meet 'this' criteria."

Add to the current group

Queries the entire database, but maintains the currently viewed group and combines the two lists.Or, "Keep this same current group, but add only the people who meet 'this' criteria."

Take away from the current group

Queries the Current Group and removes those contacts that meet the criteria chosen.Or, "Lookup this same group, except, take away contacts that meet 'this' criteria."

Sort Order

There are two ways to control the sort of a lookup. Since alphabetical is the most common, you can sort the current group alphabetically just by right-clicking in the list.

You can customize the sort from there as well, or at any time while creating a Lookup:

Comments on this Help Topic

Yes, if you look in the screen shot above, you will see one of the options when you right-click is "Customize Sort". When you select that, you can sort by any field (even successive fields, like By City *and then* Likely to Give, etc.

In the few months that I have been using TNT Connect, I have never seen a time when I could use the options other than "Replace the current group". The other options in that section are always greyed-out.

Those options would be, "Lookup within the current group" and "Add to the current group" and "Take away from the current group".

Is there a way to type in multiple lookups at a time? Somewhat like excel? I need to apply 10+ added filters for 8 different groups. That means I have to click 7 things 80time or more. Or could I at least change the automatic function from "replace group" to "add to group"?